Both Republicans and Democrats in Florida Senate Race Unknown to Voters

The U.S. Senate race in Florida to replace outgoing Sen. Marco Rubio has turned out to be nothing like the one in 2010 that saw Rubio defeat then-Governor Charlie Crist.

In 2009, Crist had incredible name recognition across the state of Florida, as well as around the country, while only a handful of people in Florida knew who Rubio was.

As you know, Rubio went on to become the leading figure in the conservative grassroots movement of that election cycle, but things are a lot different in this year’s Senate race.

According to a Quinnipiac poll conducted in Florida, all of the GOP Senate candidates are considered unknowns.

The polls show that most residents of Florida don’t have a clue who the current four GOP Senate candidates are, or who the Democrats vying for the job are.

Rep. David Jolly and Rep. Ron DeSantis, as well as Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and businessman Todd Wilcox, are all hurting badly, as 86 percent or higher of Floridians when polled say that they cannot form an opinion on the candidates because of lack of knowledge about them.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D) does best in voter name recognition with 67 percent, but that is most likely because Grayson’s bombastic and often-times offensive rhetoric thrusts him into the public light. Grayson has higher-than-normal negatives than most.

His opponent in the Democratic primary race, Rep. Patrick Murphy, who is the favorite among their political party’s elite, is just as unknown as the Republican field of candidates with 81 percent.

Meanwhile, as reported earlier, this same poll has Senator Rubio enjoying a 57 percent approval rating as Senator.

It is not clear if anyone of these candidates will clearly break from the pack in the near future. One thing is for sure, there will not be a repeat of Rubio’s 2010 Florida Senate campaign.